Under Construction: Raising the Roof
by Meriem Clayton
Summary: Sequel to Under Construction: Framing. Sam has finally decided she wants Daniel but that means reclaiming him from another woman and, even with her friend Sara and their unborn child as allies, it won't be easy.
1. Chapter 1

This story was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt has been made to copyright any characters which may not have been originally created by the author, and no profit is made from this work of fiction. Any original characters and the stories themselves are the property of the author. 

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"They just are not going for sexy when they design maternity clothes," Major Samantha Carter complained, yanking off yet another disappointing garment. "Come on, Sara," she urged her companion and clothes shopping taskmaster who was leaning up against the dressing room door, "let's just go get some ice cream."

"Maybe they don't design sexy clothes but they certainly design sexier clothes than your maternity uniform and the unimaginative things you've picked up to date," came the rebuttal.

Sam could see that Sara was not going to give an inch. They had set out to find something for Sam to wear in her campaign to win back Daniel and Sara wasn't going to let her quit until she succeeded. "Sam, you need to make him think about how it was when you were, you know, together."

Sam was stunned. "Together? As in you think I slept with Daniel? That probably means you think I slept with Jack too and that that's how I wound up pregnant with twins fathered by two different men!" Her voice got higher and higher, both in volume and in pitch. The conversation in the adjoining changing room abruptly ceased and Sam and Sara exchanged looks, communicating their mutual realization that their conversation was entertaining the general public.

Sara said, in a near whisper, "You guys were captives for five months in a very difficult situation. It would be understandable if you all gave in to temptation once or twice."

Sam looked at her as if she was a viper that had just bitten her. "How can you have become such a good friend of mine in the last few weeks believing that? You're in love with Jack. I think you guys are probably going to get remarried. I don't get you."

"Are you telling me that that cock and bull story," Sara paused to snigger, realizing the double entendre before resuming, "about Daniel and Jack both donating sperm so you could get artificially inseminated because your biological clock was going off is the truth? Sam, you can be honest with me. It was before Jack and I got back together. How could I hold it against either of you when you are clearly not interested in him that way now?" Sara's expression was mulish and screamed, "I wasn't born yesterday."

Sam took several deep breaths. "Okay, Sara, the story about my requesting that they donate sperm isn't true. But I didn't sleep with them either. What actually happened is completely classified and if you tell anyone even what I just said, the NID is going to come knocking on your door."

Sara's eyes were very big. "Really?" she breathed.

"Really."

Sara looked at her sideways, still not totally convinced, but getting there. "It makes a little more sense then that Daniel has gotten so 'involved' with Janet. I mean, if you guys really weren't ever actually lovers." They looked at each for a while longer. The people in the next changing room had resumed their conversation, evidently concluding they weren't going to be able to hear anything else juicy. Sara decided they needed to move on as well and thrust out another top to Sam. "Try this one on. It's a beautiful shade of blue and it'll play to your eyes."

Sam took it but started to whine a little. "Sara, my feet are starting to swell."

"Don't play the pregnancy card with me, eh, Major," Sara said in a credible imitation of Jack's voice, if Jack had been a lot more of a martinet.

Sam slipped it on and Sara made an admiring sound. "Now we're talking," she said and pointed Sam to her reflection in the mirror. Sam now had the raw material for a lot of cleavage and this top was making the best of it. It stopped short of a working girl's uniform but just barely. The color did do wonders for her eyes and the full, peasant style sleeves and the cleverly cut front, flaring out under her breasts, deemphasized her stomach. "This is going to definitely get the attention of a certain archeologist," Sara approved.

Sam had already put a hand to her chest to cover up the revealed expansion of creamy, white skin and was actually blushing. "I can't wear this. What will people think?" she protested.

"People?" Sara asked. "The only people there when you wear this at the thing at your house will be Jack and I, Teal'c, and Daniel and Janet. Maybe Cassie, if she comes home from college that weekend. Let's work through that list. The way these girls dress now, Cassie will never notice. Britney Spears still makes you look modest. Teal'c and Jack have both urged you to consider Daniel and could only applaud your initiative. Jack will also feel a spurt of appreciation which he will then feel guilty enough about. That will leave him a bit turned on and anxious to be particularly nice to me. I can't complain about that. Now Janet will not like it. At all. This top is definitely the gauntlet being thrown. If she didn't know you had decided to go after Daniel, she'll figure it out the minute she sees you in this. The one I wonder about is Mr. Clueless. Daniel, from everything you and Jack tell me about the guy, walks around oblivious to women looking at him like he was a Peep in their Easter basket."

Sam sighed hugely. "I know." She took her hand down and looked at herself again. "Sara," she asked. "You don't talk about any of this with Jack, do you?"

"My friend, anything I told Jack would go straight to Daniel. The two of them are so close since they spent five months together in that cell that it's like Janiel or Dack." There was a slight edge of something in her tone that made Sam look at her questioningly. Sara made a face. "Okay, I'm a little jealous. I mean, Jack never had a friendship like this before. I've got to say, all the focus has been on whether you have some sort of post-traumatic shock, because of the pregnancy, right? But I think the two of them have some things that need treatment. Do you know Jack really isn't comfortable if he has no idea where Daniel is?" She shook her head, looking down, nudging a hanger lying on the floor with her foot. "And, Sam, it seems like one of them calls the other every night before Jack feels like he can go to bed." She looked back up at Sam. "You want to hear a weird theory? I think he's sort of turned Daniel into Charlie." They both contemplated that thought for a moment.

Sara visibly gave herself a little mental shake and said, briskly, "Anyway, we don't want Daniel warned as to your exact tactics although we do want him to wake up to the fact that there is a campaign going on. If he doesn't take the bait at all Saturday, I say we use Jack to wake him up a little."

Sam nodded slowly. "That makes sense."

As they exited the dressing room, Sara clutching their prize, she asked, keeping her voice low, "What I don't get is why you don't just tell Daniel that you've changed your mind. He did propose marriage when you first told him he was going to be a father, right?"

"I'm afraid that was a 'duty' proposal. If I just ask him baldly, he might agree because he thought he should. I WANT him to want me, really want me."

As they strolled on over to Baskin-Robbins to satisfy Sam's almost constant craving for ice cream, Sara devotedly hoped Sam was right. She had come to really like Sam. An even stronger motivation was that she thought her chances of a successful future with Jack would be improved if the mother of Jack's child was happily married to someone else instead of being a perpetual fifth wheel in her own relationship.

The next day, Sam stood outside Daniel's office door, clutching a pamphlet. A man and woman in uniform walked by and she was sure they were smirking at her. She hated the fact that so many people who knew about the team's captivity believed that she and her teammates had simply had sex regardless of the real story of which most of the base knew some version. There were definitely those who didn't believe that Sam's alien captors had artificially inseminated Sam for reasons of their own with sperm from the two men they also held captive. Of course, no one believed the official cover story any more than Sara had. "Never mind, Sam," she admonished herself. "You have a job to do for yourself and your babies." She was still short on courage so she took a quick trip to her dream house.

_It is early evening and it has been an awful day at Cheyenne Mountain. There are problems she couldn't solve, problems she has been beating her head against for days without any apparent progress. She feels as if she has gotten to where she is by some lucky fluke and people are about to find out she isn't half as smart as everyone thinks she is. She is so grateful to see the old Victorian in front of her that spells comfort and welcome and people who thinks she is wonderful._

_The front door with its oval of stained glass is unlocked. Daniel has already picked the twins up from daycare and is here ahead of her. She drops her briefcase next to the heavy oak dresser that sits in the front hall and looks at herself in the mirror that hangs above it. It seems to her that she looks the way she feels._

_Suddenly two little people come barreling into the hall and grab her legs. "Mommy, mommy, mommy," they chorus. "Up, up," demands one and she scoops one up in each arm. One little boy frames her face in sticky hands and says, "Mommy pretty." She buries her face in his neck for a moment. The child on the other side gives her a big, gooey kiss then on the cheek and they both have their sturdy little arms around her neck._

_It is at that moment that her husband appears. Daniel looks tired as well but he has nothing but a warm smile for her as he approaches with a damp washcloth and tries to save her from sharing in the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches upon which the boys have been snacking. "It's hopeless," she laughs and he nods ruefully and chucks the washcloth behind him to free his hands. He wraps his arms around all three of them and hugs. Then he says to little Jackie, the source of the "Mommy pretty" comment, "Pretty is a good word but beautiful is like double pretty. Your mommy is beautiful." He kisses her fully on the mouth. The two little boys are used to such behavior and don't pay much attention but Sam is rejuvenated and all the cares of the day fall away._


	2. Chapter 2

Feeling better, Sam rapped on the door. There were some random noises and then she heard the door being unlocked and Daniel opened it. He appeared a little flushed. Looking behind him, she saw Janet, also sporting heightened color. "Oh my God," she thought to herself. "They're so far gone they're making out at work. I should just turn around and leave." Daniel looked at her, embarrassment and some sort of defiance warring with themselves on his face.

She didn't' know how much longer the impasse would have lasted if Janet hadn't stirred to life, smoothed her skirt and said, "We just about finished the consultation we were having about possible medical implications of some recently discovered artifacts."

Daniel chimed in then. "It's really quite interesting Sam. I can show you what we're talking about if you're interested." 

Sam thought, "I wonder what you'd come up with to show me if I actually accepted THAT offer."

Janet eased past her through the door on the heels of Daniel's words and said, "I really need to get back to the infirmary. We'll have to do lunch soon, Sam. See you tonight, Danny."

"Talk about blatantly marking territory," Sam fumed. "She'll see 'Danny' tonight, will she? We'll see about that."

"Do you have a moment, Daniel?" Sam inquired as if absolutely nothing had happened.

"Of course, of course," he said, clutching at his hair. "Come on in. I imagine you'd like to get off your feet." Daniel's solicitude over her condition seemed erratic to Sam. His natural kind caring nature seemed to be at odds with some powerful anger he had been holding on to tightly ever since she's turned his proposal down.

Sam settled herself and held the pamphlet out to Daniel. "What's this?" he asked, turning it over.

"It's a pamphlet about childbirth classes. I need to start them," she explained. "I got some misinformation and just now found out that I really need to go to the first class tonight."

Daniel looked at her blankly. He didn't say anything but he clearly was thinking, "You're telling me this because…."

"Daniel, Jack absolutely doesn't want to do this. He had a bad experience as Sara's labor coach. I had initially planned on asking you both to coach. You're both the dad here and being at your child's birth is wonderful, people tell me. It was a luxury to have two coaches but it's a requirement to have at least one. If you turn me down, I'm out of luck. I'm counting on you. Your child is counting on you."

Daniel mumbled something unintelligible and started a couple of sentences only to have them die aborning. While he was still groping for an answer, Sam felt a baby move. "Oh, Daniel, one of them is kicking me. Here feel it." She grabbed his hand and placed it on her stomach. She was focused inward, communing with her children. "I think it's Danny that's kicking, not Jackie." She nodded in confirmation. "One of the babies as a real aggressive kicker but the other one has this really interesting rhythm going. Somehow I think the first one is Jackie and the other is Danny." She looked up at him, "What do you think?"

Daniel was still working away at his response. She looked at him, innocently, her beautiful blues wide and fixed on his face. Finally he said, "You're naming him Danny?"

"Of course. You object?" she said, still holding his hand against her stomach.

"No, not at all. I've told you, Sam, that I want to be his father, be part of his life," Daniel said.

"Then you'll be there tonight, right?" She released his hand and started toward the door. "The time and place are on the back of the pamphlet." With that she exited as quickly as she could given that she now moved with an element of a waddle thrown in. No need to give Daniel a chance to back out.

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Daniel watched her go, holding his hand out in front of him as if it had been slammed in a door or otherwise needed special attention. It was still warm from her stomach and tingled for reasons that were more emotional than physical. That had been a real flutter against his hand. There was a real child inside her. He cradled the hand in his other arm. For just a moment, he imagined himself lying next to Sam, able to look at her pregnant body because it was his. He imagined her breasts, heavy because of his child. He stopped the daydreaming when he remembered it wasn't just his child. It was his child and Jack's, he reminded himself and there lay the problem.

He thought about how she had suddenly started seeking him out in the past two or three weeks. She had questions about his family history as to genetically related disease. She wanted to talk about what sort of visitation schedule he envisioned. She asked his opinion about godparents. Did he mind if she asked her brother Mark? Did he have anyone in mind? She stood very close to him when she talked to him and she smelled so good. He didn't remember her wearing any kind of scent in the past, just getting by on the clean smell of soap and shampoo, but he really thought she had started wearing something a little musky. He and Jack talked a lot and he knew how serious things were with Jack and Sara. Had Sam decided that there was no hope with Jack and was now going after him in some sort of desperation move to raise her children in a two parent family? He picked up the phone to ask Jack's opinion but then decided he would go talk to him in person.

As he walked toward Jack's office, he recalled the godparents question again which started him on another train of thought. Godparents! Her dogtags said Catholic but he had always thought it began and ended there. She was planning on having the child christened and he couldn't remember her ever going to church, at least not before their period of captivity. He really had little or no idea what she'd been doing lately. Daniel himself had a vague appreciation for something spiritual out there but what he visualized was more like the force. If she was becoming a devout Catholic, he wasn't sure how he felt about her raising their child that way. On the other hand, he didn't see how he could object if it was really important to her and he, in contrast, really didn't have any strong feelings about it. It just pointed out how much there was to work out and how foolish he was for not starting to do so sooner.

Jack was in his office and seized delightedly on Daniel's arrival to shove his paperwork aside. "Take a load off," he said, directing Daniel to his visitor chair. Daniel, of course, needed no direction since he sat in it on a daily basis. 

Daniel said, "I've got to warn you, Jack. I'm here to discuss feelings."

Jack made a show of looking at his watch. "You got five minutes."

Daniel objected. "Five minutes? I thought I got ten minutes a day." He was only half joking. Jack didn't really run the clock on him but Daniel tried to be sensitive to the fact that, even with him, Jack had a low tolerance for touchy feely discussions.

"You went over yesterday, Danny boy," Jack explained. "All that stuff about how sweet Janet is and how you feel like the king of the world after you spend an evening with her, Yada yada yada."

"She's so adorable," Daniel said, getting a dreamy expression on his face.

"Daniel you're going to waste all your feeling discussion time on yesterday's topic," Jack warned.

"Yeah. Right. Well here it is. Sam is all of a sudden around like ALL the time. Everyday she's at my office with something about the baby. You haven't said anything to indicate she's been doing that with you."

"We do have a lot of conversations about it," Jack said, surprising Daniel, "but the thing is, she spends so much time with Sara, that a lot of it gets discussed between Sara and Sam and then Sara and me."

"Sara and Sam? How did I not know this?" Daniel wondered aloud.

"Well, for one thing, a lot of our conversations lately have been monopolized with the whole Janet topic. And you made it pretty clear to me a while ago that you really didn't want to talk about Sam so I've been easing back on it," was Jack's reply. "Daniel, Sara's going to be Jackie's stepmother. We all know it even though I haven't officially asked her." Daniel nodded, smiling broadly. He was delighted for Jack that it was working out. "Anyway, her involvement with Sam has helped her to go from feeling like the baby is competition to feeling like she's part of it, like the baby is a little bit hers. Maybe you need to try to get something like that going with Janet and Sam."

"There you go again, Jack," he admonished his friend. "I haven't asked Janet to marry me. We haven't even discussed it. And there's some bad blood there all of a sudden between Sam and Janet. They used to be such good friends but my dating Janet seems to have created a rift I don't really understand."

"Daniel, good grief, did you just fall off a turnip truck? They both want you. This is not a recipe for girls' night out together." Jack snorted in disbelief at his friends' obliviousness.

"Jack, surely not. I mean, Sam turned down my marriage proposal."

"Daniel, that was then, this is now," Jack said. "So to get back to your initial point: Sam is around a lot and…"

"Well, you said she wants me. I'm beginning to think she is going after me but I am afraid of why," Daniel said leaning back and scrubbing his face with his hands.

"Now Daniel. Life as a sex toy is difficult but you can learn to live with it," Jack joked, looking at Daniel with half closed eyes and trying to figure out what it was that Daniel thought was the why.

"You need new material, Jack," Daniel said, having had that particular piece of teasing before. Jack was always telling him that half the women on the base wanted to jump him but Daniel thought it was a base somewhere in Jack's mind. He certainly hadn't seen any evidence of it. Well there was that woman who worked in the cafeteria who had dropped mashed potatoes in his lap. Not really a memory he wanted to focus on.

"So, what's the 'why' you're so afraid of?" Jack prodded.

"She has to be aware of how serious it's gotten with you and Sara. There's no way to continue to harbor hopes that you'll marry her. Now that she's further along with the pregnancy, the reality of being a single mom is bearing down on her more heavily. She's totally desperate and I'm her only option." Daniel finished his dismal scenario and sat, glumly studying his hands.

"Danny, Danny, Danny," Jack said, and then continued, "Danny, Danny, Danny. I guess being so hideous and stupid has just caused you to have incredibly low self-esteem."

"Cut it out, Jack. I came down here for help not a comedy act," Daniel said, not the least bit angry but knowing he had to move Jack past the almost obligatory smart aleck response to get what he needed from him.

"It's hard to stay serious when your question is so crazy. Sam is a very strong woman and I do not think there is any way she would be so desperate in the face of single motherhood, something that a huge percentage of mothers in this country face successfully every day, that she would marry someone she didn't want." Jack leaned forward and looked intently at Daniel. "Personally, my friend, I don't think you WANT her to want you at this point. It really complicates your life. You're all lovey dovey with the doc and able to put your feelings for Sam aside because she rejected you. Now she's making you sit up and take notice that you've managed to let yourself be in love with two women." Daniel was sputtering, trying to voice a coherent protest. "Oooh yes. You know I'm right," Jack said, a little smugly.

Daniel stood up abruptly and started pacing. "God help me then. I hate the way you do that being right thing although you are occasionally wrong, you know." He wheeled and looked at Jack. "How can I make a choice like this?"

"Does the Muslim faith look appealing or maybe you should talk to some of those renegade Mormons that are still practicing polygamy," Jack said and then sobered up. "I'm sorry, Daniel. It's pretty impossible for you. Particularly since you're a nice guy and you don't want to hurt anyone. I'm biased in favor of Sam. I was half in love with her myself for a long time. And, if you want my opinion, there is no way you could have enough history with Janet yet to have built the same depth of feeling. I hate to say it, my friend, but you are terrified of the power Sam has to hurt you." Jack relaxed back in his chair then. "Here's where I'm supposed to say, but this is your decision. And it is. But personally I think you're a fool if you choose Janet."

Daniel collapsed back into the chair and gave Jack a dirty look, "Why don't you tell me how you really feel, Jack?"

"Daniel, I do the sarcasm. Stick to the sympathetic nice guy you do so well and stay out of my territory," Jack said.

Daniel looked upward. "Now, Oma. Now would be a really good time to take me again." 


	3. Chapter 3

That night, Daniel was pacing again, this time outside the church where the childbirth classes were being held. The class started at 7:00 and, at 7:05, he still hadn't seen Sam. He started flashing back to graduate school and the rules for how long you waiting for an instructor as opposed to an assistant professor as opposed to a full professor. There was no one you could put the expectant mother of your child in any category except the one with the most respect. Okay, he'd give the full professor wait -- 15 minutes.

"Daniel," her breathless voice intruded on his deliberations. "I got all turned around trying to find the church." There was Sam, looking adorably mussed and out of breath, with some sort of a pad under one arm and a couple of pillows under the other, coming toward him quickly.

"No problem. They spend the first ten or fifteen minutes of things like this milling around. I'm sure nothing useful has happened yet," he reassured her. He held the door open and they went down the steps to the basement all purpose community room.

They were chagrinned to discover that this particular childbirth instructor ran a tight ship. The couples were already seated around the room on pads or blankets of various descriptions. The instructor, a petite woman with shoulder length straight blonde hair, turned to look at them, her expression friendly but firm. "You must be Samantha and Daniel. Welcome. We usually start class promptly at 7:00" she said, her warm smile taking some of the sting out of the rebuke. Their classmates chorused various versions of "Hi."

"Go ahead and choose a spot and sit," she directed. They went to the nearest open space which was next to a large, no-nonsense looking man with a military haircut and a thin scar barely missing his eye on one side of his face. Based on the dog tags hanging against his t-shirt, he was military. His partner was a young woman with a mass of dusky curls framing her face and falling down her back. She had an olive complexion and a heart shaped face. Daniel looked at her and felt a pang in his heart. She looked like Sha're's sister. "How many women are you going to be obsessing over at one time, anyway?" he chided himself.

The instructor said, "We were just telling a little about ourselves. Calvin and Rosa," she prompted, looking at the military guy next to them, "You're next."

The couple exchanged a look and the result apparently was to nominate Rosa as the spokesperson. She smiled shyly and began with a strong Puerto Rican accent, "Cal and I have been married for almost two years. We're due May 12 and we're expecting a girl. We're planning on unmedicated childbirth." She stopped for a moment. "Oh, we're naming the baby after Cal's mother, Sophia. Cal's stationed at Cheyenne Mountain with the Air Force and I work for a call center."

Daniel was absolutely bollixed to find that the guy next to him was at Cheyenne Mountain. While he was still processing this, the instructor smiled approvingly at the young couple and then shifted her gaze to Daniel and Sam. "Daniel? Samantha?"

Sam looked serenely at Daniel and he was caught between disbelief at her perfidy for pushing this off on him and complete stage fright. Finally he cleared his throat and said, "Sam and I have been close friends for years. She decided to have a baby and I, I," he ground to a halt. Did you tell a room full of strangers that you were an artificial insemination donor? "I contributed." Several people looked blank but others had an expression of dawning comprehension and they whispered to those who didn't get it so that, rather quickly, the whole group was on the same page. Daniel could have sworn the guy from Cheyenne Mountain chuckled but then maybe that was paranoia. In any case, Daniel just couldn't face explaining that he was the father of only one of the babies so he simply said, "Sam's expecting twins, both boys, and the babies are due May 20." And he tacked on since he was pretty sure the man next to him already knew, "Sam's stationed at Cheyenne Mountain and I'm a civilian employee."

"Thanks," the instructor said and then proceeded to show a video about childbirth. This was followed with an overview of the phases of labor, focusing on the early phases. Daniel gradually relaxed. If he did anything well, it was attend lectures and soak up information. All of the sudden, things got tense again. The instructor began to guide them through breathing exercises. Before he knew what was happening, he was listening to Enya, with the lights down low and Sam lying down, her head on a pillow on his lap. The instructor was urging them to maintain eye contact and he was drowning in Sam's beautiful blues. They were practicing what the instructor called "sniff ta's." Sam was to breathe through her nose, "sniffing," and "ta" out her mouth. Daniel was supposed to breathe with her but he could hardly breathe at all, period. While he was still grappling with that, the instructor, surely an expert torturer in another life, perhaps during the Inquisition, directed him to begin effleurage. He was supposed to run long strokes down Sam's back, run his hands across her hair. Of course, he complied. He began to imagine Janet standing there, watching all this, and knew he was going to be in deep trouble with her. He was in deep trouble anyway since he was rapidly being overcome with a desire to take Sam somewhere and kiss her breathless.

Daniel was almost staggering as they walked out. He insisted on carrying one of the pillows because he needed the camouflage until he got himself under control. As they exited the church and the cool evening air hit him in the face, he began to feel like he was getting on top of the situation. Sam, with exquisite timing, showed him how wrong he was about that when she leaned into him, kissed him on the check, and said, "Thanks, Daniel. Don't forget. The next class is same time, same place, next week."

She tried to take the pillow but he held on. "Hey, you shouldn't have to bring EVERYTHING," he demurred. "I'll schlep this back next week."

Saturday, as they parked behind Jack's SUV and Teal'c's GrandAm in Sam's driveway, Daniel's knuckles were white from his death grip on the wheel and he wished briefly he had used the pillow to suffocate himself instead of showing up for this disaster. Daniel had finally admitted to Janet on Friday that Sam had sandbagged him into going to a childbirth class with her. Knowing that Janet was a doctor, he was sure she had a vague outline in her mind of the breathing exercises in which he must have participated. She didn't say a word but he felt like he was on probation for the rest of the evening.

"Daniel, I don't know about this," Janet said apprehensively.

"Oh, come on, Mom, it isn't like Aunt Sam is pregnant with your boyfriend's baby or anything," came the droll comment from Janet's daughter, Cassie, in the backseat.

"Cassie," Daniel remonstrated softly and she instantly crumbled.

"I'm sorry, Uncle Daniel," she apologized. "It's just a little weird, don't you think?"

No one even felt it was necessary to respond. They clamored out of the car, Daniel grabbing a sack with some beer and Janet taking the dish with the seven layer dip from Cassie. They stood on the doorstep for a moment and no one moved to ring the doorbell. Finally, Cassie, rolling her eyes, reached around them and pushed the button. The door opened to reveal Sam looking incredible. Her hair was now feathered attractively around her face. Her eyes looked huge and so blue and her skin was glowing. The blue top she wore was undeniably sexy. Daniel was really embarrassed to realize that he had vocalized a sort of tiny groan.

Janet was looking too stunned to say anything. It was left to Cassie again. "Hi, Aunt Sam," she said cheerfully and hugged Sam.

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Sam had thought she was prepared to meet Janet and Daniel as a couple but when she opened the door to find them there, food in their hands, like the stereotypical suburban neighbors, she almost slammed it in their face immediately. Thank God for Cassie's unaffected warm greeting. By the time she got done hugging Cassie, she was able to look calm on the outside although inside she was anything but. 

Daniel mumbled a "Hi" and Janet also managed to choke something out. Sam led them into the living room where Sara and Jack were already seated along with Teal'c. 

After everyone exchanged greetings, there was an awkward lull in the conversation until Sara suggested they play Texas Hold 'Em. Sam was chagrined to discover a mental image of strip poker springing into her mind with Daniel being the one who had lost the most hands. How had she gone from having trouble imaging anything sexual with respect to him to these X-rated scenarios? Her hormones were haywire and they were very naughty girls.

Sam was disappointed when it became apparent that Texas Hold 'Em had been a bad strategic move. Instead of noticing her as she bent over him to put a fresh drink in front of him and flashed a lot of goodies, Daniel was so deep into calculations of mathematical odds and statistics that he was barely social.

When Sam went out to the kitchen to get some dessert organized after they had been playing for a couple of hours, Janet followed right behind her and shut the swinging door behind her. Sam had her back turned but she knew Janet was there. Janet knew she knew and she knew that Janet knew. Sam steeled herself to take a hit right between the shoulder blades. "Sam, what's going on," Janet asked baldly.

Sam turned around and stammered, hoping she sounded innocent but feeling anything but, "What are you talking about?"

Janet said, "Sam, we were friends for a long time. I know you know exactly what I'm asking."

Sam felt defensive and close to tears. "Were friends?" she countered.

"Friends don't tell their friends one thing and mean another. I asked you if you cared if I dated Daniel. You gave me a green light, Sam. You basically told Daniel that you didn't want him when he asked you to marry him. You can understand why I'm feeling a little betrayed here," Janet said. Her voice was angry on the surface but Sam could hear the hurt underneath.

Sam put her hands to her face. "Janet, I meant what I said, when I said it. I didn't understand what I wanted."

Janet bit out, "But now you do?"

Sam looked up at Janet, right into her eyes. "Janet, I love Daniel and he's the father of one of my children. You know that he loves me. I don't want to hurt you but surely you can see how this has to come out."

Janet laughed and it wasn't a pleasant sound. "Sam, Daniel loves you all right. But the guy has a real capacity for that. He still loves Sha're and he loves me too. What's more, he's been very happy with me and that's something you've never given him. If you'd told me this in the beginning, I would never have gotten in the way. It's too late now. I love him. God, how I love him. I won't fight dirty, Sam, but I'm not promising to fight fair either." And she left Sam staring after her as she exited the kitchen.

A few moments later Sara appeared in the kitchen door, actually chortling. Sam thought to herself that she had never really seen an illustration of the word before. She came over to Sam and hugged her, saying, "It's working, Sam. It's really working. Before we started playing cards, he never took his eyes off you."

She pulled back and sobered when she saw Sam's face. "What's wrong, honey?" she asked, her own face falling to reflect the pain in Sam's.

"Janet was just in here. Basically it was a declaration of war," Sam explained.

"She wouldn't have been such a good friend of yours if she was a quitter," Sara said, with a false lightness to her voice. Sam shook her head, fighting off the tears. "Look, Sam, nothing worth having is easy but you have the home court advantage. He loved you first, he loved you longest, and you are carrying his child. If it's a contest, she's a middle school soccer team from Biloxi and you're Manchester United. Right?" she finished raising her voice as if she expected an affirmation. When she didn't get one, she repeated again, "Right?"

Sam smiled lopsidedly and agreed in a small voice, "Right."

"Okay then." A cat that ate the canary expression suddenly stole over her face. She leaned closer to Sam and whispered, "Daniel's at the door. I'm leaving." She patted Sam reassuringly and tripped lightly out with a breezy greeting to Daniel as she passed him in the doorway.

Daniel came a few steps into the room and stood looking at Sam uncertainly. She felt tears well up again and bit her lip hard, determined to stop them. Daniel knew her too well and could tell she was on the verge of meltdown. For a moment he seemed to forget everything and looked at her tenderly, so like the old Daniel who had always been there for her. Without conscious volition, her arms came up and she reached out to him as tears began to slip down her cheeks. He crossed the rest of the floor quickly and folded her close to him. "Whatever it is, it will be okay," he said soothingly.

"Promise?" she whispered.

"Promise," he said.

Her heart soared within her. This was the first real evidence she could believe in, forget the straws Sara had been content to grasp at, to prove that he still felt something. "Okay," she thought to the babies, "we're having a team meeting later this evening. Don't be late because we've got a fight on our hands but if we all work together, we just might be able to win."

She gave a wobbly laugh and received a befuddled expression from Daniel when she asked, "What chance do you think there is that David Beckham can be lured back to play for Manchester United again?" 


End file.
